From: verdant@twain.ucs.umass.edu (Sol Lightman)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,alt.hemp
Subject: Posting Anonymously (was Re: What the ?!)
Message-ID: <2g9ges$3fj@nic.umass.edu>
Date: 3 Jan 94 16:17:32 GMT

Using an as yet undetermined appendage Jerry Burger (jerry.burger%mushin@akix.uucp) wrote:

]I'm new around here what /who-the-hell is ANON ?! And why do
]they make so many annoying posts ? I would follow the instructions
]above but I don't want to "get on their list", if you know what I mean.
]Junk Mail is bad enough. Thanks for any info. Jer.

Posts marked anon have been put there by persons who do not want their
names or e-mail addresses to appear in alt.drugs or alt.hemp

There are many reasons why a person might choose to post anonymously.  The
most common is that they are afraid that their employer or school will catch
wind of their post and harrass them for using or dealing drugs (even
if they do not, today it is a simple case of guilt by association.)  The
fact that a person can't read or write about drugs without somebody
assuming that they are a ``druggie'' these days disgusts me and it should 
disgust you, too, whether you use or not.

Other anonymous posters are afraid of the same type of harrassment from the
Drug Enforcement Administration or similar local authorities.  This has been
known to happen (DEA agents can and do read the articles here, and can
start investigations based on what they see you post here.)

In order to post anonymously to this group, an ``anonymous server'' is used.
This server is run by persons who will not divulge information to law
enforcement officials, or anybody else for that matter.  In matters of
national security, they may be forced to turn over single names or
e-mail addresses to agencies like the NEA (I'm not sure that this has
ever happened.)  However, your identity is relatively safe from amateurs 
like the DEA.  The anonymous contact service is more likely to turn over
your name to an angry systems operator (because you breached net-etiquette
by posting a chain-letter or threatened someone's life, for example) than
to anyone else, so as long as you behave yourself, the anonymous contact
service provides you with an extra level of security.  I do not know
the administrators of the service personally, so I cannot vouch for it,
but this is the general idea behind the ``anon'' posts.

When you sign up for the contact service, your e-mail address is filed
somewhere in a deep, dark hard-drive on the server's system, and it is
associated with an anonymous identification, which is a random number 
that has no relation to you.  You are responsible for remembering this
number.  You may post to the net anonymously by mailing your posts to the
server.  You will also be able to recieve e-mail replies to your
posts -- they will be sent back to the server and the server will look
up your e-mail address and bounce the messages to you.

There are a few quirks to the contact server that can cause the occassional
mistake of allowing the posters' signature files to be appended to the 
post, exposing their e-mail address for all to see.  To avoid this, it
is best to remove any information from the signature yourself.

The automatic server will _try_ to remove your signature, but it is not very 
smart.  It chops off your file at any point where a line begins with two
hyphens.  (--)  This may result in some of your painstakingly articulated
post being chopped off, so you should save your post in your own disk
space, and you should check your file for double hyphens at the beginning
of each line and remove them (except for the one before your signature,
of course.)

To get instructions on using the server, send  a mail message -- any mail 
message will do, with or without text -- to the following address:

help@anon.penet.fi

[Permission is granted to edit, spellcheck or otherwise mangle the above, 
and include it in the alt.drugs FAQ.]

Brian

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